Does This Sound Familiar?
"My jaw hurts and feels tired when I eat!"
"My jaw makes loud noises when I eat!"
Temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders involve the chewing muscles and joints connecting the lower jaw to the skull. Although TMJ is technically the abbreviation for the joint, people commonly use this term as shorthand for the disorders and symptoms.
The TMJ's:
The temporomandibular joints are located on each side of your head in front of your ears, connecting your lower jaw to your skull. A small cartilage disc separates the bones so the lower jaw slides easily. You move these joints every time you chew, swallow and talk, so they are used very frequently.
Symptoms:
Symptoms of TMJ can include jaw discomfort and tenderness or pain when opening or closing the mouth. You may find it uncomfortable to chew, or there may be popping or grating sounds when you move your jaw. TMJ can cause headaches, earaches, facial pain and neck, shoulder and back pain. Symptoms can be caused or worsened by physical stress on structures around the joint, poor posture, neck and facial muscle strain, lack of sleep, life stress and poor diet.
The right diet is part of the treatment:
To lessen pain and other symptoms avoid eating hard foods, crunchy foods, thick or large foods that involve opening your mouth wide and foods that require a lot of chewing. This gives your jaw and temporomandibular joints the opportunity to rest.
The Nutrition:
1) Eat a good balanced diet to protect your TMJoints:
- Place yourself on soft diet (I don't mean liquid), which would consist of foods such as cooked vegetables, eggs, ground meat, fruits, etc.
- Avoid biting into a whole apple, corn on the cob, large pieces of lettuce in your salad, large pieces of meat, chewy snacks such as chips, and ice.
- For you chewing gum lovers out there......that is a definite "NO".
- By cutting down your food into small bite size pieces, you can reduce the stress to your chewing muscles and joints. And eat slower.......hmmmmm isn't that what our mother's used to tell us????
- NutraSweet
- Chocolate
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Nicotine
- Sugar (yes that includes the old soda pop)
- Excessive dairy products
- Excessive salt (use sea salt)
- Whole Nuts
- Water (how much??????)
- Fresh fruits
- Fresh vegetables
- Greens (Kale, Spinach, etc)
- Whole grains (cereal, breads, etc)
- Chicken, fish, tender beef
- Complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes
- Herbal teas
- Almond/Soy Milk
- Greek yogurt (not those fruity sweetened stuff....add you own fruit and honey)
- Healthy, energy boosting smoothies
- Some great links to healthy food and smoothie recipes that I frequent a lot:
- http://simplegreensmoothies.com/
- http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/
- http://www.inspirelearnlive.com/50-natural-energy-boosting-smoothie/
- http://www.topinspired.com/top-10-healthy-food-recipes/
